Worley impresses, Howard smashes

Vance Worley (1-0. 0.00) got the call, I’m guessing, sometime Wednesday or Thursday to grab what he needed for a couple starts in the Majors. It wasn’t the first time the Phillies (17-8) called on their young spectacle wearing right hander. Watching him on the mound tonight, you could tell he had been there before.

Aside from the four walks allowed by Worley, it really was an ideal start. The four walks never did hurt the Phillies as Worley had the Mets (11-16) looking at called third strikes most of the night. He had five strikeouts all caught looking.

This was Worley’s sixth appearance in the bigs (three starts), and his ERA is 0.95 in 19 innings pitched. He threw 102 pitches tonight and only allowed two hits in six innings. Before the game Charlie Manuel said if he could get Worley to throw 5-7 innings it would be a perfect start. Well Charlie, ask and you shall receive.

Worley held up his end of the bargain on the mound and was hoping Philly hitters would do the same. The Phillies settled into the game nicely, and starting tearing off runs in the fourth inning. By the time the scoring was over in the seventh, the Phils had rattled off 10 hits and 10 runs. A couple nonsense runs in the ninth by David Herndon spoiled the shutout but the Phillies still won 10-3.

Placido Polanco is a hitter. All he does is hit. He had two more hits tonight to raise his batting average to .390 which is third best in the majors. He also picked up RBIs number 17 and 18 as did team mate Ben Francisco. Benny Fresh also added two hits along with Jimmy Rollins from the three hole. Polanco’s two hits gave him 39 hits for the month of April; a new Phillies record. Twelve of his first 25 games this season have been multi-hit games and he has hit safely in 22 of those 25 games.

The big piece Ryan Howard can hit too. Oh and did you catch the part where he likes hitting against Mets starter Mike Pelfrey(1-3, 7.39)? Howard added another home run to list of hits off Pelfrey for his career. He is now hitting .412 against the Mets righty. Howard would connect again in the seventh inning only this time with bases loaded. Two hits, two home runs and six RBIs on the night for Howard.

It was Howard’s 10th career grand slam. No other Phillie has more than seven. Yes, Mike Schmidt has seven. The six RBIs gave Howard 27 on the season. 27 RBIs in the month of April is also a new record for the Phillies. Pat Burrellhad 25 in 2008.

Howard’s slam was the Mets 18th allowed grand slam since the last time a Mets player has hit one. Ouch. It was Howard’s 259th home run of his career tying him with Del Ennis for second on the all time home run leaders for the Phillies. Yes, Mike Schmidt is first (548).

Injury Updates.

Ruben Amaro Jr. spoke to reporters during the game about the injuries to some of his guys. If you would like to watch the video you can do so here .

The long and short of it goes like this:

–Joe Blanton was examined and it was very good. He should start tossing in two or three days.

–Jose Contreras will starting a throwing program in the middle of next week, probably around the fifth.

–Carlos Ruiz is still pretty sore but was better today. He will continue to be day-to-day.

–J.C. Romero has a good bullpen session today and will have another one Sunday. If all goes well, he could have a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Odds are Lakewood.

–Domonic Brown is playing well and will stay playing in Clearwater for the weekend and then they will decide where to go from there.

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0 Comments

bacardipr05

April 30, 2011 at 12:43 am

Nice job by the Youngan Worley. I like what i saw of him last year an he is still young an hopefully even improve more. Poor Brian he is hitting the ball hard at times just not finding any luck. I wonder how short Raul leash has become like a choker collar on a chihuahua by now. I also think Herndon has to get sent down once Romero(assuming he is first to come back from Dl ) gets back he just been atrocious. Is it me but doesnt Herndon he seem to have that nasty disposition(look) face on him. I always thought that the first time i saw him. I hope another team drops one of there catchers so we can pick one up we need a viable alternative.

I think Worley at least deserves another start.
Next one will be against a major league team and that may be a better barometer.
I wonder if he Wally Pipped Blanton.
You can never have enough starting pitching.
Can you?

Schneider is a very viable serviceable good back up catcher. Almost perfect in that role.
Can swing a bat ( .077 average noted) and is a veteran.
Now I dont like his defense much so if Chooch was to say be gone for more than a month. A move would need to be looked into.

Still a very small sample size on Worley, but tonight has me itching to see him go again.

Joey B can take alllll the time he needs getting better, ha ha.

Those injury updates sound pretty promising too. However, though I am definitely appreciating how our backups are performing, I’ll be excited in, what, like… June I guess, when all of our regular guys are up and running again.

Also, I’ll bet if we act now, we could trade David Herndon for a couple of soft pretzels, or maybe a Wawa gift card. That should help offset some of Blanton and Baez’s feed budget.

Lets not go crazy with Worley. he did a nice job but he was facing a dreadful Mets team. The nice thing is we have an insurance spot starter in AAA if need be or we can use him as trade bait or in the pen. I like what I saw too, but need to see more.

Continuing from another thread, Abreu took a lot of walks in RBI situations. When he didn’t walk, his batting average was very good. I loved Abreu and I wish the Phils could get him back somehow because he would be perfect for LF now. Sarge even said on the broadcast last night that when you’re an RBI guy that, with guys on base, you can’t be AS selective. Gotta try and get that run in. Abreu didn’t think that way. Love him, though.

Worley threw a lot of pitches, the Phils had 2 errors early and there was an egg to show for it along with 1 hit ball for 4 innings. Unreal – Worley did what was asked of him, 6 complete and 0 runs for the Muts – but it also looked like Herndon (AKA Mickey Mouse) could have started the competition was so bad.

I would definitely say the kid deserves another look but, don’t be surprised if he isn’t served up.

Not much said on this post so far about Ryan. That first shot was full Howitzer – from the crack of the bat which was thunder in the night, that ball was zeroed in to the second level. Then the idiot Pelfrey hit Howard, good move – next time up – salami time. Is there a pattern here? The other night (was it SD) when Howard was 0 for 4 with 4 k’s in extra innings, a base hit by Poly, an intentional walk to Rollins to get to Howard – pissed him off and slap – 1 hit in 5 atbats that just happened to win the game. Last night Howard was plunked after his cannon blast then the moon shot (it was hit soo high we were not sure where it was going to land). I like him pissed this year – last yr vs the Strohs (the dreadful extra inning loss) it did no good but this year looks pretty darn promising.

I did not post last night, got home way too late (there is a PIFA festival going on today, a preview was last night, they closed Broad street for this) – but, reading some of the posts, I see where some were calling for a probably struggle this weekend. Really?

Halladay is on for today with Lee on Sunday night – Wow. No doubt after Hallday’s 130 pitch performance last outting he might have a slight let down but this is the Muts. Feeling pretty good about the April (18) win prediction –

Club records set for:
Most hits in April (Poly with 39, a chance for him to tie or break his own record of 40 in the month today)
Most rbi in April, 27 (just a reminder, the Phils have played only 25 games) by Howard
Tied club record for most wins in April with 17, chance to break that today.

Today is the last day of April. Halladay is mound bound. Howard might top 30 RBI’s for the month and Polanco might up his average. Home cookin’, my friend. Home cookin’. It is a wonderful day when the Phils are winning, pitching well and hitting like they mean it.
Worley deserves all the credit in the world. He pitched great. He kept his composure in the first inning after back-to-back errors and he baffled the Mutts. Francisco’s bat is alive and Rollins looks to be stroking nicely. I am really happy. Let’s expand our lead over those pesky Marlins today and sweep tomorrow. It is great to be a Phillies fan.

Looks like Ben Fran had a few lucky hits again, I think one went for 2 rbis, but I am sure some other teams players would have got to them. Raul still struggling, even though the first K was not a strike on the low third strike so I kind of understand swinging at the out of the strike zone the next time. And Ryan is obviously not able to hit with any power just a 23 million dollar singles hitter.
But on a serious note Hernden needs to go back to AAA and work on his location, I realize it is 10-0 but to serve up those meatballs just is not ok. Stutes looked ok,See everyone Sunday night, making the trip from VT Sunday Morning.

I would entertain the idea of Abreu but he probably cost too much for the Phils. It must be only for 1 year other wise we might have Ibanez all over again. Although I think Abreu has at least this an next left in him. I wish baseball didnt have guaranteed contracts an we could pro rate players….

Abreu isnt a terrible IDEA. We all know it could be just as terrible in the field with him as Raul. And while his bat is probably better, who really knows at this point. I’m for letting Mayberry get time and seeing what he does, but how much more do they need to see from Raul?